SIRSY’s RANDOM MOMENTS #12 (“A Bat, A Rat, & Killing Father Time…”)

We had an interesting show at Nietzsche’s in Buffalo, NY recently. Nietzsche, for whom the bar is named, is a famous German philosopher. Shortly before his death, he suffered from a “mental breakdown” and released a series of short essays called, the “Madness Letters”. Perhaps that explains the “madness” at the show on this strange night. Or perhaps it was from the full moon. Either way, something eerie was afoot! “DUN-DUN-DUUUUUUUN !” (click link to set the “dramatic mood”)

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Rich and I were setting up the merch table at the club hours before the show. We’d met the sound guy, Kenny, who was super nice. Things seemed to be going well. A fairly normal looking man marched up to the merch table and started talking to Rich and me, as if in mid-conversation– like we’d already had the beginning of this conversation with him earlier. Neither of us knew what he was talking about. But we both assumed that the other one had spoken to him earlier. This continued for a while until he said, “So you’re from Albany. That’s right near Fishkill and lots of other towns with the word kill in the name, which is something the military likes to do. Kill, Kill, KILL!” (At this point he was shouting and pointing his index finger in my face). Red flag! Kenny the sound guy heard the shouting and came over and got the guy out of there. I asked Kenny if he knew him. He did not. Kenny said I needed to signal him if I needed a future rescue. We decided, I’d brush my forearm and he’d come over and politely remove the madman. Agreed.

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We played our set to an enthusiastic crowd. (Nice!) Our friends, Mikanecho, played a great set next. It was a good night. After the show a man who looked almost exactly like “Father Time” approached me. Now, I didn’t want to judge a book by its cover but this guy did seem a little “off”. I don’t know if it was his look in general, his wild eyes, or just the brown liquid dripping from around his mouth and beard. It looked exactly like A-1 Steak Sauce and when he talked, he spit bits of it into my face. (Yes, take a moment to take THAT in).

Father Time ponders the Pope's Dating Status...

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Father Time said, “You were up on stage.”
I answered, “Yes I was.”
He said, “I saw you. I saw you the last time you were here, too. And the last time you were here, we came to an agreement.”
“Did we?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered. “We agreed that the pope was a bachelor.” There was a long pause. Then he said, “What I want to know this time is if you think he’s an eligible bachelor.”
“The pope?” I asked. “Are we talking about the real pope?”

“Well nobody knows if he’s real,” he answered. And at that point I saw Kenny, coming towards me rubbing his forearm and laughing. He escorted the man out of the bar.

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It was time to pack up my drums and load out of the club. I could hear people screaming a bit from the other side of the room and everyone seemed to be ducking. I quickly realized that a bat had gotten into the club. He buzzed by my head at least a dozen times, coming close enough that I could hear his little chirp noise by my right ear. Everyone agreed that he seemed to like me a lot. (Was it my vanilla perfume? Note to self: don’t wear that anymore.) Both doors in the club were open and folks were trying to shoo him out– unharmed. I ducked out for a quick second because I have to admit, I was a little freaked out by the constant dive bombing. Just then a GIANT rat ran right in front of me through the parking lot. I can’t wait for Halloween….